FAQs

I am no longer reviewing books here, so please don’t ask me to review yours.

When I was actively reviewing, these were my guidelines:

 

Please read the following notes very carefully before you submit your work to me.

  1. I only review print books, and will not consider electronic books of any format no matter how nicely you ask.
  2. I will not review unpublished books. If you want free editorial advice, you can look for it elsewhere.
  3. And no, I will not edit your book even if you pay me.
  4. I will not guarantee a favourable review in return for a fee. Please do not suggest it.
  5. There is no need to pitch your work to me in your submission email: simply request a review, and let me know your book’s title and genre in which you write.
  6. You’re welcome to send me more than one title for review, so long as they’re all self-published and you wrote them all. I won’t review books here without the author’s knowledge and permission.
  7. Yes, I do accept vanity-published books for review here, including those from PublishAmerica.
  8. Do not expect an immediate response to your submission email. I work my way through them in batches, and it can take me months to get back to you.
  9. Once I’ve written up my review and scheduled that review to appear I’ll add it to my “recent and forthcoming reviews” list. Once your book appears on that page you should be able to work out roughly when your review will appear.
  10. I am not able to offer specific dates for reviews.
  11. I have a huge pile of books waiting to be reviewed; once I receive your book it will be added to that pile, and might not be featured here for months.
  12. Please do not chase me if your book’s review doesn’t appear as soon as you’d like. It will not make me work any more quickly.
  13. I will not give advice on your book’s potential or commercial viability.
  14. I cannot review every single book submitted to me. I will always review the books which show the most promise; I will always review the books which were honestly written. But I will not review books which encourage illegal activity, books which incite hatred or violence towards anyone or anything, books which appear to have been written by someone suffering from mental health problems or by someone with an unhealthy obsession about someone or something, books which appear to be plagiarised, libellous or defamatory, or books which I find distasteful or disturbing in any other way.
  15. If you have a question about publishing, please search my other blog, How Publishing Really Works, or take a look at the forums at AbsoluteWrite (where I post as Old Hack). You’ll almost certainly find the answers you need there, and a lot more besides.